I Have A Doctorate. But Really.
Have you ever seen the movie Lars and the Real Girl? Aside from the fact that it has the total hottie Ryan Gosling, the plot line is rather interesting. He’s in a relationship with a mannequin. So to the rest of the world he looks crazy, but to himself, he is just a regularly infatuated man. This situation can be applied to the stigma of online dating. People think that dating someone you haven’t met in person is basically “pretending” they exist. However that whole idea has started to become less and less of an issue. In fact according to Pew Research Center, a fact checker resource says that 1 in 5 adults ages 25-34 have used online dating at one point or another. So… the whole “online dating” thing has started to be something that was once made fun of and is actually something people are using!
Before we dive too deep here, lets take a step back and discuss the validity of Internet dating. According to Psychology Today, in an article called “Can You Really Trust the People You Meet Online?” people tend to actually be more honest online as compared to in real life. That makes a lot of sense when people don’t have to speak to someone face to face the chances of them actually being authentic are more likely. They don’t have any barriers put up since they’re by themselves. There is actually more of a chance for the lies to come from the false profiles that are out there rather than the people who are genuinely trying to meet people. A site dedicated to the younger woman called HelloGiggles wrote an article called “7 Signs You’ve Stumbled on a Fake Online Dating Profile”. It talks 
about instances where people turned their profiles into robots. So the first tip is about their messages and whether or not it makes sense. If the messages received are unorthodox then chances are it isn’t real. What was also funny is that number 6 was if they claim they have a doctorate. According to the article, 37% of scammers claim to have a doctorate on their profile. So… hackers are also trying to get the ladies who want a well-educated man. For those of you hackers out there, just thought I’d let you know that this is an option for you to meet women.
So after looking at false profiles, lets look at what it takes to have a good and “successful” dating profile. Eharmony, a very well known online dating site, has tips and advice for those love seekers in need of guidance. The most successful profiles have pictures, and LOTS of them. It says that profiles with pictures are nine times more likely to get communication from other places, 4 or more pictures is a good amount. Other tips were about placement of the body and whether or not to smile. So to some degree “face to face” is still an important role in forming relationships. People can use technology to find love, but they still do crave evidence of an actual human, and this statistic proves that.
So looking into the future, dating online could potentially become a huge movement. Our society is so fast paced, and we have grown impatient to “wait for the right one”. In essence, people are beginning to search for those so-called “soul mates” on their own and see what they find. It can be successful! With the stigma of what online dating was as compared to what it is now, who knows what doors will open in the digital realm.